Skull of a Sea Lion in the education room at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito." 5/12/03 in Sausalito. MARK COSTANTINI / The Chronicle

Skull of a Sea Lion in the education room at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito." 5/12/03 in Sausalito. MARK COSTANTINI / The Chronicle

Photo: MARK COSTANTINI

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Doreen Moser(right) the Center's Asst. Director of Education demonstrates a blocking technique the staff uses with Sea Lions. The guy trying to knock her down is Joel Montellano, a High School student for San Lorenzo. The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito." 5/12/03 in Sausalito. MARK COSTANTINI / The Chronicle less

Doreen Moser(right) the Center's Asst. Director of Education demonstrates a blocking technique the staff uses with Sea Lions. The guy trying to knock her down is Joel Montellano, a High School student for San ... more

Photo: MARK COSTANTINI

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Photo: MARK COSTANTINI

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Ernie Hirose, Marlene Kandall and Stan Jensen release
Arrow an eight month old California sea lion at Point Reyes along with Alxeia. By the people from the Marine Mammal center .Photo By Kurt Rogers

Ernie Hirose, Marlene Kandall and Stan Jensen release
Arrow an eight month old California sea lion at Point Reyes along with Alxeia. By the people from the Marine Mammal center .Photo By Kurt Rogers

Photo: Kurt Rogers

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Photo: MARK COSTANTINI

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(l-r) Joel Kudler, Shelby Stouts and Karen Smith load a sea lion into a truck that will take it to its release near Point Reyes. The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito." 5/12/03 in Sausalito. MARK COSTANTINI / The Chronicle less

(l-r) Joel Kudler, Shelby Stouts and Karen Smith load a sea lion into a truck that will take it to its release near Point Reyes. The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito." 5/12/03 in Sausalito. MARK COSTANTINI / ... more

California sea lions are naturally curious. The flipper-footed opportunists scrounge for any food they can find - even a fisherman's catch. And that can lead to trouble.

Each year, dozens of emaciated sea lions with gunshot wounds strand on coastal beaches. Others are found with fishhooks in their blubber or bodies. Still others get in the way of boat propellers, or become entangled in fishing nets.

The Marine Mammal Center rescues ill, orphaned and injured animals, nurses them back to health, and returns them to the wild. It also serves as a bio- monitoring station and education facility for Bay Area students.

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Today, the Marin nonprofit looks after a 600-mile swath of California coastline from Fort Bragg to San Luis Obispo, including San Francisco Bay.

The center, with its animal hospital at a former Nike missile base in the Marin Headlands, is far from the limelight. But its legions of volunteers have rescued more marine mammals than any other organization in the world, said B.J.

Griffin, the center's executive director.

"We should learn what we as human beings and as coastal inhabitants can do to minimize impacts and give these species a greater chance of survival," Griffin said. "They are high on the food chain. They are sentinels for a healthy ocean. If nothing else, we should be concerned about our own selves. These animals are very important to our environment and our survival."

Marine mammals and humans are still learning to coexist. As the California coastline becomes more densely populated, marine mammals have been forced to adapt. Toxics, raw sewage and a dwindling food supply are all threats to coastal marine life.

"We have a large population of marine mammals living off a nutrient-rich area," said Griffin, a former National Park Service official whose administrative posts included superintendent of Yosemite National Park and general manager of the Presidio. "The more people living on the coastal area, the more interaction. There's room for cooperation and room for competition."

Dangerous conditions

Industrial and agricultural poisons such as PCBs and DDT are found in the blubber of stranded northern elephant seals and California sea lions. Some marine mammals have viruses or cancerous tumors that may be tied to increased pollutants in the ocean.

Heart disease as well as parasitic infections such as Toxoplasma gondii - which is linked to cat litter - were recently identified as factors in the high mortality rate of southern sea otters, a threatened species whose numbers have declined to about 2,000.

Marine mammals are taxed by the increased competition for natural resources,

especially at times of deadly climate shifts such as El Nio years. Those that eat food tainted by toxic algae blooms similar to a red tide become ill with neurological disorders caused by domoic acid poisoning.

Many pinnipeds that strand on coastal beaches are malnourished or dehydrated - conditions that weaken their immune systems.

Some animals need surgery, a steady diet and months to heal. Others, abandoned by their mothers, need to learn how to eat fish.

"There's nothing better than going out and rescuing an animal that's very sick, nursing them through the rehabilitation process, and seeing it released, " said Erin Brodie, a staffer who coordinates rescues of stranded animals. "Even if an animal doesn't make it, you can learn how it died and contribute knowledge to the scientific community."

More than 8,000 marine mammals - including seals, sea lions, dolphins, whales, and sea otters - have been rescued by the center since its founding in 1975 by three volunteers who initially used bathtubs to rehabilitate animals.

On average, the center rescues about 500 animals a year. It has a staff of 45 and an annual budget of $3.6 million for its veterinary hospital, scientific laboratory and education programs. Its work is supported through private donations, grants and minimal class fees for visiting students. It has 30,000 members who pay yearly membership fees of $25 to $499.

But its treatment facilities, patched together over three decades, are disintegrating. Its animal-care buildings are freight containers with rotting floors. Its swimming tanks for animals need new plumbing and water filtration equipment. The center's hospital was rebuilt in 1998, but its necropsy room is separated from the lab. And there is no cold storage room for carcasses.

The center has begun a campaign to raise $14.5 million to renovate and rebuild its facilities. So far, $9.5 million has been collected. Griffin plans to begin building the animal-care complex in fall 2004 - a project that will take about two years.

Harbor seals are often rescued at San Francisco's Pier 39. But marine mammals run into all kinds of trouble around the bay:

. -- Since January, the center has rescued seven underweight California sea lion pups and yearlings from San Francisco beaches. Often during El Nio, the center sees a higher than usual number of underweight youngsters who are having difficulty finding food. Of the seven, one died and two were euthanized.

One has been released; three are being treated.

. -- A female Northern fur seal pup stranded last November in the Berkeley Marina. She was treated for malnutrition and released in late January. Also in January, a female gray whale calf washed ashore dead at Bay Farm Island, near the ferry terminal at Shoreline Park in Alameda. The calf had apparently become separated from its mother on the northbound migration.

. -- A healthy harbor seal pup that hauled out on Thornton State Beach in Daly City last month had to be admitted to the center after being picked up by a human. Similarly, a harbor seal pup that was illegally picked up out of Suisun Bay had to be admitted to the hospital, where he remains.

. -- A male pup Northern fur seal with oil on his back stranded in January at a busy traffic intersection in Mill Valley. After swimming up Richardson Bay and up the Sausalito Canal, he came out of the water. He was treated for malnutrition and released.

. -- A California sea lion stranded last June at San Francisco International Airport. The young male had crossed several runways at night and wound up behind an air cargo facility. He was suffering from domoic acid toxicity. He was treated with an anti-seizure drug and released three weeks later.

The center runs a 24-hour hot line - (415) 289-SEAL - to field calls from the public about stranded marine mammals. Some healthy pups that are separated temporarily from their moms do not need to be rescued, and should not be handled.

It also has rescue facilities at Anchor Bay near Gualala in Sonoma County and a new triage facility in Monterey Bay at Moss Landing. It is planning to build a rescue facility in San Luis Obispo.

Dr. Marty Haulena, a staff veterinarian, performed surgeries to fix the jaw of a harbor seal hit by propeller. A visiting ophthalmologist performed cataract surgery on two sea lions and an elephant seal.

The center's 800 volunteers are its everyday heroes. Many work full-time jobs, then log hours helping marine mammals.

At the animal hospital, volunteers in blue medical gowns use a hand pump to feed a harbor seal pup a liquid diet of fish mash, salmon oil and a milk matrix substitute with vitamins.

Jan Overton, a retired physician, has volunteered for seven years. She works a 10-hour shift for harbor seal pupping season. "The harbor seal's teeth are like cat teeth," she said after being bitten by an orphaned harbor seal pup who was learning how to swallow a herring. "They may pierce your skin, but they won't take your finger off."

Visits from schools

Last week, sophomores on a field trip from Arroyo High School in San Lorenzo gathered around light boxes at the center's science laboratory, examining an X-ray of an injured animal.

"Geez! How many bullet holes are there?!" said a teenage boy.

The X-ray of a California sea lion's skull revealed 36 buckshot pellets. The animal, blinded by the pellets, could not survive in the wild. So it was euthanized.

About 8 percent of the animals rescued each year by the center suffer from gunshot wounds.

Last November, a California sea lion was found at Morro Bay Harbor with an arrow in its shoulder from a crossbow. The animal was rehabilitated and released in February. Three men were charged with misdemeanors under the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act. A boat captain has pleaded guilty and agreed to pay a $2,100 fine. Cases are pending against the two others.

Students in another workshop were being taught the fundamental similarities and differences between human skeletons and marine mammals. Humans and marine mammals, for instance, have phalanges - or fingers.

"Can we touch this?" asked a student, pointing to the skull of a rare Stellar sea lion.

"Absolutely," instructor Kristi Kelly said.

Nearby, a half-dozen students were hunched over microscopes, identifying parasites such as lung worms that can kill harbor seals, elephant seals and sea lions.

Twice a week, an hourlong program called "Sea Lions and the City" is offered at Pier 39 for students. The center's decorated "Whale Bus" also visits schools throughout the Bay Area, bringing its hands-on workshops to schools that cannot afford bus service to the remote center.

"There's a lot more to learn about marine mammals," said Ann Bauer, the center's education director. "I still can't answer the students' question, ÔWhy do elephant seals have smooth whiskers and sea lions have bumpy whiskers?' I still can't answer the question of why they are getting sick, or why sea otters are dying off."

Little is known about the vast wilderness of the oceans, even though the oceans support life on the planet.

"It's almost impossible to capture enough wild animals to do any kind of research on them," Griffin said. "While they're in treatment, you're able to extrapolate your findings as an indicator to what's going on in the population of the species."

Tracking the mammals

About 55 percent of the rescued animals are successfully rehabilitated and released. Some juvenile harbor seals and others die due to complications from anesthesia. New anesthetic techniques are being investigated.

Animals released into the wild have orange flipper tags glued on so that the success of their rehabilitation can be charted for up to a year. Harbor porpoises and other rare animals are released with a satellite tag to monitor their behavior for years.

The center is studying orphaned harbor seal pups. Those treated and released are given radio tags to monitor their diving patterns and survival, compared to a control group of wild pups.

In another study (in partnership with Moss Landing Marine Laboratories), satellite tags are being glued onto sea lions in an effort to identify signs of permanent brain damage in those animals stricken with domoic acid poisoning.

Their location and diving activity is monitored.

Some researchers view marine mammals, which are top predators in the ocean food chain, as similar to canaries in a coal mine.

"I want people to learn about marine mammals, to get excited about marine mammals, to care enough about them to save them. I would like through education to stir passions and inspire actions by people," Griffin said. "I want us to always see whales on our coast and sea otters - for future generations. I just like knowing they are there, and it's critical that their populations are healthy . . . critical to our lives as human beings."